when i go to step one: select obj file to import. i click on 3d file and when i go in the game files there is nothing there to import. not sure what i'm doing wrong or if there is a program to make obj files for editing the bodies. :confused:

I`m still not sure what you mean, a obj file is a file which contains the mesh that you want to import into the game. You need to have exported the mesh from SimPE then edit it using your 3d program , then once you have done that you can use the mesh tool to reimport the obj file (created by your 3d program ) back into a gmdc file, which you replace back into the package.
If you haven`t done these steps, then I suggest you read the tutorials.

If you have already done them but are having problems with a obj file, then please post that obj file so I can look at it and see what the problem is.

ok what is the best 3d program to use. don't get mad at me i'm just tring to learn all this meshing stuff. i'm very sorry i didn't know you had to do all that. :Slap:

i´m a newcomer.if i wan´t to create a mesh,do i need an older version of mts2 mesh tool?

I`m not at all mad with you

I`m not really any good at 3d modelling, so can`t really say what 3d program to use, and also every modeller will have their favourite 3d program, so their isn`t one "best" program. If you don`t already own a 3d program, then ones which are either free or inexpensive are: Milkshape, blender, gmax, Softimage XSI mod tool.

Milkshape is the less complicated one of those, but a lot of people find it to do certain tasks with.


I`m sorry that I can`t give you a complete tutorial of the steps you need to do here, we have posted other tutorials which should help you and if you then get stuck on any step, ask for help again.

Hi, thanx for the update - the MESH Tool is fabulous!
Thank you, thank you, thank you!
However, ... I'm using Milkshape 1.7.4 and I can get all the .smd file etc., and I think I got the whole process, but all my altered body meshes are coming out deformed around the shoulders and chest, like wes' plug-ins for Milkshape.
Now there's a couple of options on the import/export of .smd file - load faces/rename bones etc. could someone tell me if I've been missing something - I've just done the default options, is that correct for what we're trying to do?
I know you guys are clever - please help!

L+K's xxx

The deforms are most likely because Milkshape only supports one bone per vertice, you need to use a 3d program which can allow a vertice to be assigned to more than one bone (the game and the mesh tool supports a vertice being attached to upto 3 bones.)

A free program which does, is Softimages XSI mod tool .
http://www.softimage.com/products/Mod/v4/

Thank you guy's for the fine tool, your contributions to the Sims community is unmatched....

I will try it out as soon as I can

Oh yea, does it support more objects?

The current version doesn`t import the bone/joint locations, it just uses the original ones from the gmdc file. I`ll look at supporting moving the joints in a future version, the only problem is that with some objects (haven`t tested if it does it with all objects) the game (and some of the values from the cres file) seem to override the joint locations in the gmdc file at certain time

what it means is that some (or at least one) vertice is being assigned to 4 or more bones. The game as far as we know( we haven`t found any case where a vertice is assigned to more than 3 bones) and the mesh tool only supports a vertice being attached to upto 3 bones.

I had a similar problem to what you are having with Softimage XSI at first, if I assigned a vertice to a bone, and in between the position of the vertice and the bone it was attached to was another bone then the program also assigned it to that bone, so it could lead to a vertice belonging to 4 or more bones. The only way I found t stop it was to be carefull of what bones I attached a vertice to, but there may be a way in the various 3d programs to turn this sort of feature of.

If it`s not that then I don`t know what it is, I don`t believe it is anything to do with the mesh tool asall the mesh tool is saying is that file has too many bones assigned to a vertice, but if you post the file you are having the problem with I`ll look to check if there are actually more than 3 bones assigned to a vertice in it, for you.

Thank you again guys had no problem with the "Mesh Tool version 0.9.46" at all...

I like the auto completing when you rework the same mesh a million times... LOL

can you post one of the packages you are having the problems with.

The top bunk wouldn`t even open in SimPE for me, but anyway the problem (or one of the problems) is that the mesh tool doesn`t really yet support creating beds (and some other objects) when using smd files and these files have some of the same extra datalists in as body meshes. You could try importing them while having the "body editing" box checked to see if that works (I know it used to work on other objects which have those datalists in but can`t remember if I changed anything which would stop it doing so.) , but this would have the result of those other datalists being removed, some of those datalists are involved in morphs (in a body mesh they contain details for the fat and pregnant morps but not sure what morphs they would contain for a bed) and some are still unknown as to what they do.

yeah I noticed after I posted that I hadn`t been paying attention and had tried to open the gmdc file in SimPE , (and had thought it was the top bunk.) So I think I need to get some more sleep. I`ll play around with the files and see what I can work out tomorrow.

Questions:

In step 4, you said "either from the main screen or go straight to the 3d view", if I want to do from the main screen, which should I use, Object Wizard button or Load 3d file button? Either way, I cannot go on. No information about subgroups show. It's just like the old version of Mesh Tool. So I can only load mesh from file >3d view

On step 8, I checked the gmdc view, but when I switch through subgroups using +, -, this is what I get

What's that? For other subgroups, it's similar, just white pieces on different locations. How can i tell which part is in which subgroup?

Last, there is a problem with the tool. For the original armoire ("dynasty armoire"), there are 4 planes for shadows. I deleted them when making new mesh because you said leave only 3 parts and I want to follow your tutorial strictly. However after loading the mesh and gmdc, the group for shadows are still there. I think that's because of the old gmdc, and that's fine. But if I let GMDC View checked, make one model highlighted, and then click on any shadow in objects, there is a run time error 9 appear.


Thanks a lotfor helping!

Edit: uploaded my test armoire in case you want to take a look.

I am trying to follow Miche's advice from another thread, on adding a second .obj mesh into my clothing body mesh.

But, the mesh tool crashes whenever I try to go to the GMDC view in order to assign this new mesh to a bone.

When is the correct time to check the GMDC view box?

I tried before loading anything, after loading only the new .obj, and after also loading the original body mesh gmdc file, but it crashes every time.

I see some of you have gotten it to work, can you explain what I must do before checking that box?

Thanks Atavera for answering one of my questions Yeah I believe that's the reason. I didn't mean to click the shadow group, just an accident But I think that problem better to be fixed, as I believe someone else will possible has that kind of accident too, and if we get an error, everything we done before cannot be saved.

And then what? I must have missed something. I'll go back and read through the thread.

Brasstex

The Mesh Tool flat out doesn't work.

It acts like it's working properly but my changed mesh NEVER actually makes it into the file that's supposed to be put back into SimPe. :\ I've done the listed process over and over again, following it exactly, it's not working.
I'm using 3DS 5.1 with the Cannonfodder SMD plugin. It would be nice if -specific- instructions on what options to check off when importing and exporting were given, in the event that it's those options causing the problem.

Thanks - I almost got mine to work - no crash this time anyway.

I cycled through to what I thought was the right subgroup, but I put that subgroup number into the box.

It didn't work right, the object is added, but in BodyShop it shows up floating off in space with a comet trail behind it.

At least I'm getting somehwere.

Should I always put 1 in that subgroup box, no matter what group the new mesh should be assigned to?

As you don`t say what exactly you are doing when it doesn`t work, I can`t help you without more information, and I`m not sure what options you mean, but the mini tutorials in this thread do tell you what of the check boxes to have checked at what time. And sorry but the mesh tool does work else no one else would be importing anything with it. Post again giving more information and maybe include the files you are trying to use.

the first question, yes you use the load 3d file and the load sims2 mesh. I`m not sure what you mean about no subgroup information is displayed. After you have loaded the files in this way you still need to go to the 3d view (so really you might as well go to the 3d view straight away and load from there).

I don`t know what those parts where (I take it they are from the files you have included, I`m just about to look at the file so will get back to you), there are some problems with viewing the subgroups if that object uses more than one bone per vertice, as the subgroup view will only take into account the first bone the vertices are attached to. ( They look like the door and drawer handles and hinges to me, one of the objects in the armoire I looked at contained the handles and hinges. When looking through the subgroups in gmdc view you will see the vertices which are attached to that bone/subgroup.)

And with the last problem , yes this I know about (I believe I did say about it in earlier posts) if a object has no subgroups and you try to view it with the gmdc view enabled you will get a error, and most shadows have no subgroups, you can tell if that object has subgroups or not as it says how many in the box below the list of objects (if there`s 0 in that box when you click on a object (without gmdc view enabled) then it has no subgroups).
I will fix this in a future version.

Edit: I`ve just looked at the file you included and you haven`t included the gmdc file, can you post that so I make sure I`m using the same one as you are.

okay the process I did (I only add a simple box to the front of a body mesh) was:

1: have the mesh(es) you want to add in a obj file. (it needs to be positioned correctly for what part of the body you want it to go to, so the easiest way is to export a body mesh (as obj file I think is best) and then add the new mesh in the right position(make sure you keep it as a seperate mesh/group though), then you can delete the body mesh (or even leave it in the obj file, as long as you don`t assign it to a subgroup it will be ignored).

2: load the obj file and gmdc file into the mesh tool.

3: Select the body from the object list and then check the "body editing" box.

4: now check the gmdc view box and go through the groups till you find the bone/group you want to add the mesh to. (as I said in the last post with body meshes the gmdc view is far from ideal as it only shows the vertices which have that bone as the first attached bone. there is another way to find the group which I`ll add to the end of this post).

5: once you know the group number you want to add the mesh to. Click on the mesh you want to add, and then in the sub-groups# box in the bottom right of the window (I really should change it so there aren`t two boxes named the same) enter the number from the top sub-groups# box (the number of the subgroup you want to add the mesh to) then click commit.

6: now uncheck the "body editing" box and check the "3 weights" box

7: now click add model and save the gmdc file.

It works for me but if you still can`t get it working can you post the files you are using.



Now for the other way of finding out what subgroup to assign a mesh too.

1: export the object as a smd file and load into your 3d program, now find the bone number that want to add a mesh to. Note down the bone number, now open the package you got the gmdc file from in SimPE.

2: go the gmdc plugin view and items 3.

3: click on the body entry in the unknown items 3 list.

4: now look through the unknown items 3c list untill you find the bone number you want to add the mesh to. highlight the bone number.

5: now scroll back to the start of that list , and count through till you find the entry you wanted, so you need to find what the entry number is which contains the number you want. So in the body mesh I`m looking at (not sure if they are all the same, but think they are). the first entry has a number 3 in it (which is bone number 3) so the number of the subgroup though is number 1. then next entry subgroup number 2 has a number 4 in it ,so that`s bone number 4 and subgroup number 2. and it continues like that.

I`m not sure how clear I made that so if you any any problems just ask.

OK, thanks again. I think I see where I was going wrong, I had the "3 weights" checked the whole time and it was probably weighting the new mesh to several bones. I also made the mistake of originally creating the add-on mesh (just a simple bracelet, as a test) as a .smd file, and assigning it in MilkShape. I also exported it as an .obj file from MilkShape, but perhaps the assignments stuck with it or something, and I most likely was assigning it to the wrong bone, as I couldn't really tell which "bone" was which. I'll try tracing the bone number as you suggested.

Well, I am getting closer every time -

I am now able to attach the new mesh to the correct bone, but it still has the "tail" - see the pics.

I think it's something I did wrong on the bracelet mesh itself, though.

I imported/exported it in so many different ways, using both yours and Wes's tools, that it probably has gotten some extra data attached to it somewhere along the line.

Before I bother you with this any more, I am going to go back to the beginning and re-do everything from scratch